Accomplishing Order

I guess the first step to getting organized is creating order. So many things on my to do list have been put aside and forgotten because I didn't write them down, or I did write them down, and I put them in a 'smart place'. For me, it's always the 'smart places' that I can never remember... I can't tell you how many projects I have started planning for on some scrap piece of paper that ended up getting moved or thrown away in some hasty attempt to clean up before the Mister gets home. The more important it is, the smarter of a place I put it, the less likely I am to ever find it again.

My first goal was to make myself one solid place for all those thoughts, ideas, and bits of information that eventually need to be stored somewhere permanent. As it turns out, it takes me more than one try to figure out exactly what that means. I've seen hundreds of 'house binders' floating around, and thought maybe that would work for me. The only problem was that half of the dividers in all these house binders had no relevance in my life. I am a stay at home mom with a two year old, a husband who is getting ready to deploy, and no solid schedule to speak of. Still, I knew I had to start somewhere, so I took a few ideas and threw them around.

Binder attempt #1

I started with recipes. My wonderful sister gave me a recipe box for Christmas last year, but I have found so many recipes online, mostly through Pinterest, and it would be more than a little difficult and time consuming to put all those recipes onto the recipe cards, especially with my Little Mister running around constantly. Don't worry, Megan, I will do it eventually!

I decided the next best thing would be to take all my online recipes, print them out, then put them into a binder. I made a list of our favorite recipes, as well as a few recipes for things I knew I was planning on trying soon, and copied, pasted, and re-formatted them so they were all uniform, then printed them. It's really been a nice thing to have around the house, but I bought myself a 2.5 inch three ring binder, thinking it would be more useful because it can hold more.

It has been useful, and I can store a lot of things in it, but it's really inconvenient to lug around the kitchen or take up space on one of the whopping two counter tops we have. I did learn, however, that while having a binder was an excellent idea, this one just wasn't going to cut it for me. Onto attempt two!

Binder attempt #2

There is this small old binder that I have had for ages. It has moved with me since I graduated High School for sentimental reasons,  but it's never really served a purposed.  I though it might be perfect for my new house binder. I took the binder off the shelf and started looking online for free home management binder printables. I found a few I liked well enough, but when I went to print them, I ran into a really big problem. One that I should have thought about, because it's obvious. The binder is too small. The pages are only 5.5 x 8, so I had to re-size every page I printed off, which worked, but left very little room to write anything, let alone make a list.

I had a general idea for what categories I was going to have in this binder, so I decided to just make the pages myself. I started with some basic lists, things we want for the house, things we need for the house, projects I want to complete, and general home improvement information. I made up all the pages, printed them out, hole punched them, and ran into the living room excitedly to show the Mister.

He politely paid attention while I explained what it was, very proud of myself for all the work I had put into it, and he even helped me think of a few ideas for each section which I diligently wrote in. Seriously, he is so supportive of my crazy, spazzy moments! Over the next couple days I would think of another random item and write it down in the notebook, and I felt so happy that I finally had an organized place for all my ideas!

And then I stopped writing in it. 

Once the ideas were out of my head, in the notebook, and the notebook was put away, I hardly thought about it again. Not really ideal for something I was planning on using constantly, definitely not a good fate for such a pretty binder! I guess it was time for attempt three, and time to find a new plan for the mini-binder.

Binder attempt #3

I basically set this binder thing out of my head for a few weeks. I wasn't thrilled with any of the options I could buy from my local stores, and I didn't want to buy anything online in case the image was different than the actual item. Eventually, we went to visit my dad over a long weekend, and one thing I love about visiting my dad, aside from obviously seeing my dad, is that he lives in an area where there is tons of variety. Shopping, food, entertainment, whatever you want to do, there are multiple options. There are three targets within 15 miles, Office Max, Office Depot, and Staples, whereas the town I live in has one office supply store, one target, and a whole lotta not much else.

Needless to say, I planned a trip for me and my Misters to Staples. I'll admit, I am a sucker for Martha Stewarts collections, and Staples carries them! I knew I would find something there.

Well I wasn't wrong! I fell in love with these binders the second I saw them. Unfortunately, the price sticker I saw said they were $14.99, which is ridiculous, but I knew it was something that I wanted, and I would use it if I loved it, right? so I bit the bullet and grabbed the blue one. Thank goodness when I got to the checkout counter I found out that the price sticker had been misplaced, and they were only $5.99. That is much more acceptable. I should have grabbed a black one too, but the Little Mister was getting very tired, so we decided it wasn't worth testing his patience.

I can't tell you how excited I was to get back home! I didn't want to leave, because I love my dad, but I was seriously excited to get working on my new binder inserts!! I got online, looked on every page I've seen offering free printables, and found a few that I liked, but none that I loved. Don't get me wrong, there are some excellent  free printables out there, I just couldn't find any that I was going to be 100% happy with, so I decided to go ahead and make my own again.

It is still a work in progress, and some of the pages still need a little work, but I am ready to show this puppy off.

I am truly sorry about these pictures... All I have right now is my phone, and no photo editing software on this computer.





The first thing is a calendar I found at the $ store, which just makes me so happy. Saving money, and finding something that has colors that will match my binder? Win win. :)


After my calendar, I have Birthdays and Anniversaries. [not pictured]





Followed by my Cleaning Schedule



My Weekly To-do List



A list of our favorite meals - I always try to have the ingredients for these in the house, that way if I don't have any ideas for dinner, I can just whip one of these up.



My Goal Sheet, which I changed from 'Weekly Goals' to 'Goals' because most of mine are longer term than just a week.



My favorite page: The Project Planner

And that is followed by my Bills sheet. [also not pictured]

I laminated a few of the pages so I could take a wet-erase marker (dry erase wouldn't come off for me) and check things off, write things in, etc, which really makes life easier, and saves some paper! It is still a work in progress, but so far I am so happy with how it has turned out, and I have been able to keep working with it now for more than just a week, so I have hope that this one will actually stick!

 I hope to keep using this binder, and as I use it, I plan to figure out exactly what it is that will help me to stay organized in each of these categories, and I would love to share my success with you! I would also love to share the pages I have created, so if you are interested in them, please view or download them! Here are the links again:

Birthdays and Anniversaries
Cleaning Schedule
Weekly To-do List
Goal Sheet
Project Planner
Bills

Do any of you use a binder to organize your lives? Have any ideas on what a truly useful binder should contain? I would love to hear your thoughts!